today’s episode of alchemy of souls enraged me. like in episode 6 we got a good return to s1 levels of plot and progression. ep 7 was okay all things considered and then today’s episode was a flaming trashpile when it came to plot but more importantly character development and actions.
like, for a crown prince that we praised all of s1 for not being a massive douche they really decided to spin it all on its head from even last episode. he and jang wook were largely okay, and then all of the sudden this mf decides that he’s going to side with jin mu for what?? everything about his character development so far says he isn’t totally on board with jin mu’s schemes and killing people and all the other shenanigans but today? nah. we’re going to ruin a perfectly good character who has a brain and is nice to watch and turn him into an absolute douche canoe. (turtle notwithstanding.)
and then yun ok? girl. please sit tf down. season 1 was okay because you largely stayed in your lane. but the whole unrequited infatuation with jang wook going so far as to attempt to harm / expose the literal love of his life that he mourned for 3 years after she stabbed him through the heart? the point of this was?? we were doing so well when it came to women not sabotaging each other and then this happened.
yul’s about half on brand and with his moral dilemma it sort of makes sense if you’re stretching. i’m still a tad confused about the murder naksu side of things, i think that was more related to the parasite? maybe?? but he desperately pleading with mama jin to not expose things and let the two live for a short while actually checks.
naksu’s actions are the one that i’ll actually defend this time through. as maddening as it is to watch as a viewer master lee was correct in his assertion that jang wook finding out would cause the biggest moral dilemma of all time. the funny part about having two characters (wook and naksu) who don’t have motivations of their own is that things with the leaving for north fortress and not telling the love of your life that you’re their dead fiance because you know you’re going to die soon is very on brand. naksu thinks that she’s sparing wook the pain of finding out she’s alive only to have her ripped away again and would rather push him away than hurt him in that way again. (did someone say avoidant attachment). honestly, i’ll accept jang wook not realizing because the dude thinks that she’s dead and his judgement is definitely clouded when it comes to anything naksu related.
but overall, the plot is stretched real thin right now. we’re fabricating problems off of out of character actions while also making me want to punch every single person on the screen in the face. (not you jang wook you’re doing great sweetie)
i really hope this takes a better turn because the hong sister have approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes to fix this trainwreck of what should and could have been a really phenomenal ending to a great drama
